Certain instruments are well known in the medical field for conducting physical assessments of patients and in which separate instruments are used for examining specific target areas. For example, ophthalmoscopes are used by a primary physician or ophthalmologist for examining the eyes, otoscopes are utilized for examining the ear canal and tympanic membrane, and laryngoscopes are used for examining the throat passage.
A general pervasive issue with these physical assessment devices is in providing a suitably large field of view of the intended target of interest. For example, it is desirable and advantageous to be able to access the entire tympanic membrane while using an otoscope. It is further desirable to be able to capture more of the retinal area of the eye all at once during an examination.
An issue in creating a larger field of view is that of the instrument itself. For example and with ophthalmoscopes, the field of view can be expanded by shortening the working distance between the patient and the instrument. The foregoing, however, creates issues in terms of anxiety and discomfort for the patient. It is therefore desirable to provide a medical diagnostic instrument that can provide a larger field of view, but without having to shorten the working distance between the instrument and the patient.
Yet another pervasive issue in the field relates to improving manufacturability of such diagnostic instruments in order to reduce labor and associated material costs by using a minimum number of components, but without sacrificing reliability. To better deal with this concern, it would be extremely beneficial to develop a suitable optical architecture that could be shared between multiple types of physical assessment devices and to develop a simpler manufacturing method for these devices.